The celebration coincides with and honors the Week of the Young Child and National Library Week, both of which are celebrated April 14 to 20. Some 1,500 copies of "The Tiny Seed" have been made available for free for young children and families across Berkshire County. Bookmarks with reading tips also will be distributed.

"We've been wanting to do something with Eric Carle for a while because he's from Western Massachusetts and because we wanted something to do with spring and growth," said Mary Nash, project coordinator for the Berkshire Compact for Education based at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. The Compact leads Wee Read with the support of numerous collaborators and participants.

Wee Read had a "soft" launch this year by distributing books at an Easter egg hunt in Stockbridge but will formally begin this Saturday.

Nash said Eric Carle's signature illustration style will be echoed in arts and crafts projects, including the posterboards for the StoryWalks, through which families can walk along an area and read and see the story page by page.

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A new event for Wee Read this year is a School Readiness Fair, sponsored by the Pittsfield Transition Team and Pittsfield Promise literacy initiative. The event is April 27 at the Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough.

"I think there's a lot of attention being paid to early childhood at this time, with an increase in spending in early childhood and the governor's budget," said Sue Doucette, the early childhood coordinator for Pittsfield Public Schools. "Also in Berkshire County, we have a lot of resources available to families and young children. We communicate a lot with each other and collaborate with each other."

Wee Read also will feature special community reading events.

Heidi Dugal, principal of Gabriel Abbott Memorial School in the town of Florida, will visit the Tuesday night playgroup led by Melissa Zepka, a child development specialist at the Family Resource Center of Child Care of the Berkshires in North Adams.

Dugal said having an initiative like Wee Read associated with the playgroup not only highlights literacy, but also highlights the ongoing work that people like Zepka do with parents and children on a regular basis.

On Saturday, StoryWalks go on display for the month at Becket Washington, Berkshire Trail and Kittredge elementary schools and the Dalton CRA. There's a story time and playgroup from 9 to 11 a.m. at Montessori School of the Berkshires in Lenox Dale.

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